Overview

Killzone: Mercenary is a first person shooter for Sony’s handheld console, the VITA. Set in the Killzone universe, it provides both a long single player campaign as well as multiplayer game modes.

Allowing players to take either a stealthy or a guns blazing approach, it is an excellent portable experience.

Development

The game runs on a heavily modified version of the engine that was used by Guerrilla Amsterdam for Killzone 3 and made extensive use of the VITA’s touch interface for the gameplay mechanic which controls melee combat. Additionally, the gyroscope gave us an extra input for improving the accuracy of weapons in addition to the thumb sticks, making it considerably easier to land a good shot despite the small screen size.

I’ve worked on most areas in this game, from AI to rendering and multiplayer. Creating a high quality first person shooter in a portable device was challenging but an amazing learning opportunity.